Page 44 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

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Much has been written about ancient Egyptian gods. Like all the nations of that time, Egyptians
worshipped many gods, with one or another popular at a given time. While a one-to-one
correspondence between the plagues and the Egyptian gods is difficult to prove, YHWH’s targeting of
idolatry is clear. “I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD (12:12).” Note how the
Israelites are spared many of the plagues.

1. 7:14-25: water into blood – Hapi, the god of the Nile
2. 8:1-15: frogs – Hek, the frog-headed goddess of
fruitfulness
3. 8:16-19: gnats
4. 8:20-23: flies (8:22) – Kheper, a beetle?
5. 9:1-7: pestilence on cattle (9:4, 6) -- many gods half-
human and half-animal
6. 9:8-12: boils
7. 9:13-35: hail, thunder, and lightning (9:26) – Nut the sky
goddess
8. 10:1-20: locusts – Serapia protector from locusts Fig. 25: Hathor
9. 10:21-29: three days of darkness – Re the personification of the
sun, king of the gods
10. 11:1-12:36 death of the firstborn (12:7, 13) – Taurt, goddess of maternity

Anyone reading about God’s interaction with Pharaoh is struck by the twenty references to “hardening.”
Day after day God is working on this man to bring him to know the true God. Day after day this man
stubbornly resists. Three different Hebrew words are used to describe the hardening, but much more
important is the overall trend. God knows what the outcome will be. He told Moses from the beginning
that He would “harden Pharaoh’s heart” (4:21; 7:3). Yet as the events themselves occur, God’s
hardening does not expressly happen until during the sixth plague. In ten of these references, God is the
subject of the sentence. In the other ten, Pharaoh or his heart is the subject.

1. 4:21: “I will harden his heart.”
2, 7:3: “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.”
3. 7:13: “Pharaoh’s heart became hard.”
4. 7:14: “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding.”
5. 7:22: “Pharaoh’s heart became hard.”
6. 8:15: “He hardened his heart.”
7. 8:19: “Pharaoh’s heart was hard.”
8. 8:32: “Pharaoh hardened his heart.”
9. 9:7: “His heart was unyielding.”
10. 9:12: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”
11. 9:34: “He and his officials hardened their hearts.”
12. 9:35: “So Pharaoh’s heart was hard.”
13. 10:1: “I have hardened his heart.”
14. 10:20: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”
15. 10:27: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”
16. 11:10: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”

47 A very good volume on this topic is Moses and the God’s of Egypt by John J. Davis (Baker: Grand
Rapids, 1985).

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